Book Report: "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

 

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Douglas Adams' trailblazing, free-wheeling, eminently quotable novel is a fun, exuberant experience that ends way too quickly. The sense of playfulness, the sharpness of the wit and satire on display, and the endless trove of imagination no doubt inspired the likes of "Futurama" and "Rick & Morty."

Sci-fi absurdity elevated beyond its extreme is the order of the day, and Adams hits his stride in the opening, never looking back and only reaching farther and getting stranger as he goes.

While his characters leave little to connect to, and his plotting is a snake eating its own tail, then puking it up and swallowing it once again, all the perceived shortcomings are mitigated by the wild, untamed nature of the storytelling. At times the story plays as though concocted by Mad Lib. There is always a sense of Adams making it seem like he's getting away with something that he shouldn't bem and you're along for the ride.

He gives you many fish for which to be thankful, and proves beyond any reasonable doubt that the answer is indeed 42.

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